Lawmaker seeks change in poll-worker rules

There is a shortage of poll workers, and their average age is over 70.

COLUMBUS (AP) — A state lawmaker wants to lift residency restrictions on college students who work polls, a proposal aimed at addressing Ohio’s pressing need for more election workers.

Current law says poll workers must work in the county where they are registered to vote. The proposal by state Rep. Larry Wolpert of suburban Columbus would exempt college students who are away from home and wish to be poll workers in the county where they go to school.

The move could allow tens of thousands of college students to work at campus-area polls.

Lifting residency restrictions for student poll workers is likely to be a national trend as states contend with an aging legion of poll workers whose average age is over 70, said Doug Chapin, of the Pew Charitable Trust’s electionline.org.

“As the need to find poll workers grows, you’re going to start to see states being more creative or rethinking the traditional arrangements they have,” Chapin said.

Wolpert lives in Franklin County, which includes the largest campus in the nation, Ohio State University, with 50,000 students from around the state and world.

Wolpert, a Republican, said he does not support giving college students voting rights in the county where they go to school, a hot-button issue during the Iowa caucuses.

“If that were the case, I couldn’t get this bill out. It would be dead on arrival,” he said. “Young voters tend to vote more Democratic and with 50,000 students here in Franklin County, it would probably skew some races, just to speak bluntly and boldly about it.”

Matthew Segal, executive director of the Student Association for Voter Empowerment, said it is logical for college students to be able to both work the polls and vote where they go to school.

“There is no better model of civic engagement than to have the college students participate in the community where you live rather than to feel like an outsider,” said Segal, who formed his group after long lines plagued Kenyon College in 2004. “Living in a place for four years at this time in our lives is actually a long time.”

The U.S. Election Assistance Commission has been pushing for more college poll workers since 2004. In that year, it began handing out grants to develop recruitment and training programs to encourage college students as poll workers and poll assistants. So far, $927,000 has been spent on those programs, said spokesman Bryan Whitener.

Ohioans are required by law to vote in the county of their permanent residence. Though some college students may be able to establish residency in a campus apartment, dormitories generally don’t qualify.

Suzanne Helmick, executive director of Kids Voting-Central Ohio, said more than 3,500 17-year-olds have served as poll workers since that practice was approved in 2006 and 60 percent say they would be willing to continue.

“Very few college students go to school in the county where they’re registered to vote, so we would have lots of students who would have an interest in serving if this bill passed,” she said.

The proposal, which is scheduled for a hearing Thursday, also would allow two 17-year-old poll workers at each precinct. Current law allows just one 17-year-old per precinct.

In presidential years, 17-year-olds are eligible to vote in the March 4 primary as long as they will turn 18 by Nov. 4, the day of the general election.